Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh will soon have nearly 5,000 state government-run English medium primary schools, minister of state for basic education, Anupama Jaiswal, said on Saturday.

The new schools are likely to become functional from the next academic session. Five or more such schools will be set up in every block of the state, which has over 820 blocks in the state.

Jaiswal said the decision was taken as there was a huge demand for English medium schools. “Parents are queuing up for English medium schools. So, we thought why not have government-run English medium schools to cater to the demand,” she said.

Instead of establishing new schools, the government will convert the existing primary schools into English medium institutions after giving thorough training to teachers and providing English books, said Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh, director, basic education. Jaiswal said efforts will be made to ensure that teachers teach proper English to students and help them pronounce words correctly.

Another official, who refused to be named, told HT, “Two years ago, the Samajwadi Party (SP) government had set up two such schools in every district of the state. And the response was overwhelming. The attendance of students went up in a big way. This led the (present) state government to plan more such schools...”

Before Akhilesh Yadav took the chief minister’s reins in 2012, the SP was against promoting English as a medium of instruction. In fact, the party drew flak for opposing computers and English in its Lok Sabha poll manifesto in 2009.

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